William Rollo Lenden Hayman MA, DPhil (Oxon) MBE; Founder Headmaster of S Thomas' College Gurutalawa, retired in 1963 after an exemplary career in education. He gave up the honourable position of Sub-Warden of Mount Lavinia solely out of his love and passion for Gurutalawa. The longest serving STC Warden, the Rev. Canon R. S. de Saram (1932-1958), continued for 10 ...
The most prestigious boarding school in the country, S Thomas' College Gurutalawa is located in the pristine hill country beyond Haputale towards Welimada; a paradise that is both pleasing to the body and mind. Being a boarding school, the greatest task was to feed the children three meals a day. Starting during wartime when food was scarce it would not ...
Whale Watching is about the youngest Natural History Hobby that came into being around the early 50s in the USA. Bird Watching though is the earliest habit or pastime being the way of enjoying Natural History occurrences. Today these hobbies are linked with tourism and therefore countries are dependent on a new industry to support their economies. Sri Lanka today ...
It was Jim Reeves who sang about a Brilliant Moon and Silver stars; of an old relationship that finished in agonizing recollections amid silver tears. However, that was not the case on the eve of December 16, 2023, when a special group of guests flocked to Summerfields in Pannipitiya to reminisce about their school days. There wasn’t a brilliant moon ...
This concludes a series of memoirs about the staff in Gurutalawa that continued from Dr Hayman's time until around 1977 when the school became a junior high school instead of just a middle school. The outbound school that had been planned for Gurutalawa has evolved into a general education institution comparable to any other, but its specialty in continuing as ...
A Kilto Chapman We were all juniors in 1967 and were of the habit of sunning ourselves after morning prep along the open masonry pathway on the quadrangle connecting De Saram Junior and Reid Junior dormitories. It is then that we get the aroma of cigarette tobacco and the tall personality would appear from the Reid dorm end hugging the ...
Iconic image of GurutalawaThe origination of S Thomas College in Gurutalawa; has been discussed in most of my notes about college. However, this note on the buildings of Gurutalawa is in an Architectural Engineering [AE] aspect which is something that I did not comprehend as a student but today as a professional.Gurutalawa finally gets the green light to go ahead ...
John W Marasinghe The Hayman Era (1942–1963) is said to be the most prosperous period at S Thomas' College Gurutalawa. But tradition prevailed, thanks to a team of staff that took on the challenge of running the school in line with Dr Hayman’s ideals even after his retirement in 1963. The new Headmaster was Canon A J Foster. However, ...
This was the year 1972 … we had finished schooling at Gurutalawa and enrolled on the Senior School at Mt Lavinia. The country was in a bad economic state after a failed insurgency. An insecure food situation in the country had steered a campaign to grow more food. All available state and private land went under the harrow. The pristine ...
Mr. J de S Jayasinghe (1924-1991)S Thomas’ College Gurutalawa is unique in many ways. It came up in a remote location in the Uva Province under a contingency plan when the school at Mt Lavinia was taken over by the military during WWII. It was the only component that did not go back to Mt Lavinia after the war. There ...
Dulip & Rajpal de Silva brothers... both belong to the Post Hayman Era at Gurutalawa.... they have been very generous to host an annual fellowship for the collogues during their time in Gurutalawa....This year the fellowship was held at Panadura their hometown and the night was dedicated to felicitate Mr. A C M Laffir the games Prefect in Gurutalawa.The below ...
Having been a boarding scholar all my childhood in an Anglican environment... we were introduced to certain sacred habits practiced within a Christian upbringing.Grace saying before a meal was one such practice. A form of offering thanksgiving to remember that it was God, that provided our meal. We as kids rushed to the dining hall at the meal bell hungry ...
Carl Fernando was known to me ever since we joined the FIELD ORNITHOLOGY GROUP OF SRI LANKA [Fogsl] in 1996. An outdoor man, a bachelor who enjoyed the company of like-minded friends. And a gentleman motivated for the noble cause of giving.He is today recovering from a Cerebrovascular Accident [CVA] and very much confined to indoors with his grandnieces and ...
Uncle Gomez is no more? The Field Ornithology Group of Sri Lanka (FOGSL) lost its most senior member C R I Gomez at the ripe old age of 91 years on Wednesday 30th June 2021. Ignatius (Gerry) Gomez was born in 1930 in a Christian family and attended St Peter’s College Colombo 04. He was a chorister at school ...
ATHULA SENARATNE(1964-2021)(1977-1984)STCGIt was in 2014 that I get to know Athula Senaratne personally. That too thanks to Dr Keerthi Mohotti – Director TRI, also an old boy of STCG who passed me the contact of Athula. A few of us Old Boys of the 66-72 era wanted to support Fr Goodchild and Athula who by then was looking into ...
This picture of Carl Fernando was posted by Rex de Silva in his “SEABIRD WATCH (Sri Lanka)” Group and there was definitely a reason for posting it.Uncle Carl, Uncle Gomez, and Uncle Wilson are the senior-most citizens in the Field Ornithology Group Sri Lanka [FOGSL] and they are all octogenarianstoday. They were regular and active members on field trips then ...
FOGSL under challenging conditions, Manathunge Bangalow 26th August 1999 - Pic Curtsy Ravindra Senadheera The Field Ornithology Group of Sri Lanka (FOGSL) established in the year 1976 commenced field visits to most of the bird locations in the country in the mid-1990s. This was after a very successful membership drive related to the P B Karunaratme Memorial Bird Exhibition in ...
The world today is getting Smart by the day; “showing a high degree of mental ability” on a device rather than on a human brain. As a result, long-standing traditions and practices also keep changing. It was only the other day that my old school converted a traditional classroom to a smart classroom. The event was highlighted with much ado ...
Ella a pristine Landscape that needs to be protected from commercial exploitersThe general ruling for a place to be recognized as a tourist attraction needs to fulfill three ‘OOS’, they say. There has to be a View-oo with a Loo and a Brew-oo…. It is the Loo and the Brew that one stops over for and it is the View ...
Dr. T S U de Zylva…passed away at the ripe old age of 94 years, on 13th September 2020. He was ‘Upen’ to his dear companions and Dr. Upendra to his cliental of Kurunegala who looked to him for their ailments. He was a well-known medical practitioner in Kurunegala with a long-established history, running his own private practice after a ...
